Film Strategy

Today John Cassavetes would have been 84.  Aside from watching all of his films in an all-day or week-long marathon, there is no better way to pay homage to the godfather of American indie films then by learning from his words and his methods.  Below are excerpts and documentaries on the making of many of his films like Husbands, A Woman Under the Influence, Shadows and more. John Nicholas Cassavetes (in Greek: Ιωάννης Νικόλαος Κασσαβέτης; December 9, 1929 – February 3, 1989) was an American actor, film director and screenwriter. He acted in many Hollywood films, notably Rosemary's Baby (1968) and The Dirty Dozen (1967). Cassevetes was also a pioneer of American independent film by writing and directing over a dozen movies, some of which he partially self-financed, and which pioneered the use of improvisation and a realistic cinéma vérité style.  He studied acting with Don Richardson , using an acting technique based on muscle memory. ~~ Wikipedia   Here a

Captain's Log. Star Date: 9.9.13 September 9, 1980 - The Third Generation opens "Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s terrorist comedy The Third Generation exploded when it opened in New York City in September 1980. In the New York Times , Vincent Canby raved, “There no longer can be any doubt about it: Rainer Werner Fassbinder is the most dazzling, talented, provocative, original, puzzling, prolific and exhilarating film maker of his generation. Anywhere.” Following on the heels of his international success The Marriage of Maria Braun , The Third Generation mock-heroically takes on the problem of domestic terrorism in Germany. Fassbinder explained the title’s relation to contemporary Germany politics in the following way: “The first generation was that of '68. Idealists, who wanted to change the world and imagined they could do that with words and demonstrations. The second, the Baader-Meinhof Group, went from legality to armed struggle and total ill

Captain's Log. Star Date: 9.4.13 Sep. 4, 1934 - Jan Švankmajer born In Jan Švankmajer’s film 2000 Little Otik , the titular character is a stump of wood who comes to life when treated like a baby; Švankmajer himself, though, arrived into the world in the traditional manner on September 4, 1934, in the Czechoslovakian capital, Prague. In the history of animation, few people have been more influential than Švankmajer, as his strikingly original perspective and painstaking eye for detail have led the way for figures such as Terry Gilliam, Tim Burton and the Quay Brothers. While mainstream animation tends to focus on happy, colorful antics, Švankmajer has presented a view of the world that is more sinister and macabre, filtered through a tradition of dark Eastern European fairy tales. Most famous for his stop motion work (which often has a slight jerkiness that adds to the viewers unease), Švankmajer came to prominence first in the 1960s with a series of sh

Raiders of the Lost Ark | Steven Spielberg | 1981 | USA | Format: 35mm | 111 min  Need to see this by Jamie Benning on the making of Raiders of the Lost Ark. So much filmmaking and storytelling insight, it's ridiculous. And well worth the popcorn. Watch it in installments.

It seems like we might be living in a golden age for documentaries.  It's not only that the sheer numbers of documentaries being made has spiked in recent years but also the high quality and breadth of topic has exponentially improved as well.  Doc-loving audiences must be elated. The proliferation of digital media technology surely has a hand in this.  Also, the success of the political (ideological?) documentary, the nature and history channels and the onslaught of reality shows have normalized the viewing of documentaries as a genre and made it as popular as the horror or action film.  And finally the ground Vice magazine has broken with their hip, edgy, relevant and informative short documentaries across a variety of topics on Youtube and HBO has given documentaries further staying power in the mainstream culture. It's a good time to be watching documentaries and it's a good time to make them.  That's why it doesn't surprise me to now see other media

Diary | Tim Hetherington | 2010 | UK | Format: various | 20 min   One of the main reasons I felt a section on filmmaker's journals or diaries would be useful on this site is that there are times when it helps all of us to understand the filmmaking process from the subjective view of the filmmaker.  As beginning and even experienced filmmakers hope to make it in the industry, it's always good to see how the filmmakers you admired overcame their obstacles or planned their vision.  Without a doubt, it can inspire and teach you.  But there is also a voyeuristic insight to be gained from peering into a filmmaker's diary and it's not as clear cut as a motivation or a lesson would be.  Maybe the insight we gain from the filmmaker's diary benefits us as artists and fans to understand a filmmaker's work better from an aesthetic, historical and academic perspective.  Or maybe it just satisfies our desire for gossip because it's our human nature to be nosy an

In this video, Terry Gilliam discusses how storyboarding helps him visualize, refine and even change the script for his movies.  Lots of good insight into his thought process and filmmaking workflow. Regarding this video and it's usefulness to filmmakers, David Kendricken at Nofilmschool wrote: "Gilliam says something interesting immediately, and that is his use of drawing sometimes during the writing phase. Storyboards in a strict sense are traditionally done once a script has reached a certain plateau of finality — meaning it may not be locked outright, but only relatively minor alterations will be made in subsequent drafts. Gilliam here describes his storyboarding process sometimes affecting the script as new visual ideas come out, which is an interesting inversion of convention as I see it. He highlights the benefit of using storyboards as the skeletal basis of a scene’s structure, allowing out-of-sequence shooting to work just as well as shooting in-